"I'm more determined than ever to proceed with the investigation. The public and the press have a right to know."

Whoever entered his office apparently had a key to both the main door of the assessment board and to a closet in Goodman's office in which he keeps records, he said.

County, school district and municipal taxes are based on a property's assessment. The higher the assessment, the larger the tax bill.

Assessments were illegally raised on thousands of properties throughout the county, including the Upper Perkiomen and Indian valleys, from 1979 through 1982, according to Goodman and county tax records.

The practice appears to have stopped after 1982 except in Lower Merion, a bastion of political foes of the former assessment board chairman, William P. Wentz Jr.

Some Lower Merion residents have appealed those spot assessments, and a class-action appeal was filed on behalf of all Lower Merion residents whose assessments were illegally hiked.

Yesterday, the board announced it has approved assessment cuts ranging from 12.6 percent to 50 percent on five Lower Merion properties.

The board "is of the opinion that there has been a violation of constitutional rights," the board said in letters to the property owners announcing the decisions.

Appeals were rejected on four other Lower Merion properties.

Goodman said property owners elsewhere in the county may win appeals to reduce assessments if their properties were illegally spot-assessed.

"This establishes a precedent for lowering assessments where constitutional rights were violated," he said.

He said it is a "logical assumption" that such appeals will start rolling in.

Although Lower Merion residents filed the first appeals of spot assessments, appeals from other parts of the county are coming in, including Pottstown and the townships of Towamencin, Abington, Cheltenham and East Norriton.

If they win reductions, the cuts will take effect in the 1994 tax year, Goodman said. The deadline for appeals for the 1993 tax year ended Sept. 1.

People who want refunds of taxes they have overpaid because of the illegal assessments must go to the county's Common Pleas Court within 30 days after the board rules on their appeal, Goodman said.

A preliminary review of records indicates that at least 5,000 properties throughout the county were spot assessed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he said.

Records are missing for the first year the spot assessments were done, he said.

The last countywide reassessment took effect in 1978.

State law requires that all properties be reassessed at the same time so everyone is taxed on the same basis. During a reassessment, the new assessments are based on the market value.

Outside of a reassessment, the only time an assessment can be raised is if a physical change is made in the property, such as the addition of a room, Goodman said.

But in the spot assessments, assessments were changed here and there because of an increase in market value.

A county assessor has testified that the assessment board under Wentz had a policy of continually reviewing assessments in the 1980s to correct mistakes made during the last reassessment.

The assessor, Charles E. Dorkey Jr., has said those reviews resulted in assessments being raised for one of two reasons -- a change in market value or a physical change.

Wentz has said he never targeted Lower Merion and that the law allows assessments to be changed to correct mistakes.

The decisions on the Lower Merion appeals were made by board members Floriana M. Bloss and Dennis J. Sharkey.

Goodman excused himself from hearing the appeals after the Lower Merion School District objected that he had already made it clear he believes Lower Merion assessments were hiked illegally.

As for the break-in, Goodman said he learned of it Wednesday after coming back from two days off for a religious holiday.

His staff reported to him that on Monday they found his office "dishevelled." The break-in apparently occurred sometime between 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday morning, he said.

All the papers on his desk had been placed on the floor, two chairs were moved from a conference table to his desk and a lamp was placed on the floor.

The closet door he keeps locked in his office was open. Records are stored in there.

Goodman said some of his hand-written notes on the Lower Merion spot assessment case were missing.

His staff did not notify county security officials until he returned to work because they wanted to make sure he and his children had not been in the office over the weekend, he said. They had not been there.

By Wednesday, the office had been placed back in order.

Goodman said three people have keys to the closet, and they are all accounted for. No doors were pried open.

William A. Hanebury Jr., head of courthouse security, said the investigation will be difficult because the office was put back in order by the time the incident was reported to him yesterday.

"I can't be Houdini and make things reappear four days later," he said.

Although County Administrator Nicholas D. Melair Jr. said county detectives will be involved in the investigation, Chief of Detectives Oscar P. Vance Jr. said no one has asked his office to look into the case.